


Waiting for Sunlight

by Chess_Blackfyre



Series: Galahad Dulak: Space Doctor and Rare Emotionally Stable Jedi [5]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: 99 is a good big brother, Battle of Geonosis, F/M, Kamino, Movie: Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, the kaminoans are dicks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2020-03-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:53:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23331943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chess_Blackfyre/pseuds/Chess_Blackfyre
Summary: CT-4077 has been training for war as long as he could remember. He’s also been waiting for the Jedi almost as long. But some days it felt like waiting for their generals to arrive was like waiting for sunlight on Kamino. An exercise in futility on a planet ravaged by storms.But then, they came.
Relationships: 99 (Star Wars) & Original Clone Trooper Chracter(s), Original Clone Trooper Character(s)/Original Jedi Character(s)
Series: Galahad Dulak: Space Doctor and Rare Emotionally Stable Jedi [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1664269
Comments: 19
Kudos: 129





	Waiting for Sunlight

**Author's Note:**

> Alright people, it's time to meet Galahad's future husband!
> 
> Warnings for some mild medical gore, non-graphic deaths in battle, and references to child death.
> 
> Recommended Listening: “I Will Wait” by Mumford and Sons

“What did you think of me, when we met?” Galahad asks. They’re in bed, managing to spend their precious, too-short leave time together and away from everyone else. Her head on his chest, his hand in her hair, stroking back the tousled locks. Gal, tracing her fingers over the tattoo on his pec, a blazing sun inked into the skin.

“I thought...that I was really damn glad I wasn’t about to bleed to death.” Saint jokes, because joking is easier. Easier than admitting that he’d felt like he was waiting for her his entire life.

* * *

He’d made the bet years ago. Which would he see first, the sun or the Jedi?

Kamino was a planet of nothing but water. Ocean and near-constant storms surrounding the platform cities and the cloning facilities they held. Very few of them ever had reason to step outside, except for drills. None of the brothers, as far as he knew, had ever actually seen the sun.

None of them had ever seen a Jedi, either. But after learning about them, CT-4077 decided he wanted to be the first. The boy who would be called Saint hadn’t found his name yet, still going by his number.

Every clone knew about the Jedi—or _jetti_ , the Mandalorian dill sergeants called them. It was a big part of their training on Kamino-- _you were made for the Jedi, you will Obey the Jedi, you must be ready for them when the time comes._ The cadet (child) had nodded along like his other brothers.

They had been told that the Jedi would be strong, they would be wise, and they would be followed without question. The Jedi used something called ‘the Force’ to utilize powers the clones could only dream of. They ran simulations on Kamino, being led by some sort of warriors who wielded swords who could deflect blaster fire, and lifted rubble with their minds.

4077 was eager to meet them, their brilliant generals who would lead them in battle to defend the Republic. (Both must be amazing, for how hard they were training them.) Since that lesson onward, every morning, the cadet would wake up early, sit outside his sleeping pod—he had one of the higher levels, having to scramble up and down the ladder every day practically since he could walk—and watch. The boy-soldier would curl in on himself, rest his chin on his knees, and wait. Scanning the clouds, the horizon, the ocean below for any sign of change. His brothers thought he was weird at first, but as it was before the rest of them were awake, they decided to just leave him to it.

Eventually, he made a bet with himself. The Jedi, or the sun?

The three year old had all sorts of fantasies, as he started his watch. That he’d see the ship land, and a robed figure would step out onto the platform, strong and sure. He’d imagine the Jedi Master--sometimes a human, but more usually it was whatever species they’d learned about in flash training that day--would look at him through the transparisteel, and wave in a knowing greeting. Then he’d scramble down from his perch and would run to his brothers, announcing that the Jedi were here. The ones they were made for were _finally_ here!

The Jedi would come and then everything would be so much better. They would live their purpose. They would protect the Republic. They would leave Kamino, with its white, sterile walls, and the constant harsh, assessing looks of the geneticists, looking for any bit of failure, any excuse to have you reconditioned or decommissioned. 

* * *

After a week and a half of watching, he sees it. It’s storming harder than usual, lightning splitting the sky and illuminating the descent of a small, round ship.

He’s too far away to make out the person who exits the ship, but he _knows_ , deep in his gut that it’s a Jedi. Scrambling down the ladder, he rushes out into the hallway and bumps right into an older brother’s legs.

99 was one of the oldest brothers. Something went wrong, but he was kept around anyway. He was always nice to the cadets, and 4077 could never understand why some of the other brothers were mean to him. The cadet tells him what he’s seen, trying to be a serious soldier giving a report, but sounding everything like the little boy he is.

“The Jedi?” 99 asks, perking up, and lets his little brother guide him up to his perch. It takes awhile for the defective clone to climb up the ladder, and 4077 is practically bouncing with excitement.

The boy can’t understand why his brother isn’t excited as he is.

Then the older clone sighs “Oh, _vod’ika,_ ” and explains that it isn’t the Jedi’s ship--that’s _Slave I._ “It belongs to Jango Fett--the bounty hunter who’s our genetic template. He must have just gotten back from a job.”

“But I--” the little boy drops his head, shame making his cheeks flush. Underneath the shame comes fear. If he didn’t recognize this, maybe he’s deficient in other ways. They already decommissioned Cloud because he would talk back to the trainers. He needs to do better, to be better to--

“Don’t worry little brother,” 99 assures, patting him on the head, and drawing him from his spiraling thoughts. “The Jedi will come. And we’ll be here when they do. We just--need to be patient.”

Patient, yes, he’ll be patient. He’ll keep watching.

By the time he was seven, the watch had become more of a habit than anything else, the childish fantasies fading away. He’d chosen his name by then. ‘Saint’ as in ‘having the patience of a saint’. It was a term the trainers had used a couple of times, and it felt right. (He doesn’t fully understand what it means yet. That his name also means paragon, to be kind and virtuous.) 99 smiles and says it’s a good fit.

Then one day, his patience pays off. He is ten years old now and doesn’t believe it at first, He stares, watching a red ship land on the docking platform, and a figure step out into the rain. He’s too far away to see them, he just _knows_ who it is. The Jedi had finally come for them.

This time, for real.

A few days later, he gets to see the sun as well--just not Kamino’s.

* * *

Geonosis was hot, sandy, chaotic, and _nothing_ like the simulations.

  
  


The years of training don’t really prepare you for the screaming or the blood. Of seeing brothers you’ve known your whole life die right next to you, and to keep on firing. Lucky takes one to the chest almost the minute they get off the LAAT/i. Two Geonosians manage to get the drop on Carver, lifting their medic up into the air and dropping him down from the top of the canyon all the way to the bottom. Saint is surprised that there wasn’t more blood. Then again, the nanoprene is supposed to keep _everything_ in.

But the Jedi were leading them, so victory would come if they just kept pushing onward.

(Saint would look back and be surprised that he survived the first hour, let alone the first day).

Healing had been included in the flash training, but in an offhanded kind of way. More focus had been paid on what a Jedi could do in battle. But now, as Saint was bleeding out, his plastoid armor compromised, a Jedi at his side as she told him to “hang on trooper, I’ve got you”, healing was a power he was infinitely grateful for.

It was not love at first sight. But as she knelt beside him and asked for his name, telling him it was going to be alright, Saint had a feeling that it was Important. The Jedi had finally come for him. He had _finally_ seen one.

But he didn’t say any of that. Gave her his number and rank, just like he was instructed to. “But they call me Saint,” he manages to choke out at the end.

“Hi, Saint, I’m Galahad.” She manages a smile at him. He thinks that it’s pretty, in a distant kind of way.

“Get down, General!” Kickback calls out, and he can hear the rat-rat-rat of blaster fire. She hit the ground, covering his body with her own. Despite the pain and the blood loss, Saint knew that was Wrong. _They were the ones who were supposed to be protecting her._

As she was treating his wounds, the hot Geonosian sun blazing down on them as his brothers provided cover fighter, he took her in. The Jedi was human. Female--the first human female he’d ever actually seen close up. Her hair was longer, most of it tied back in a nerf-tail, and dark like theirs. She was slimmer, but as he felt a strange not-quite-itching sensation over his skin, the pain abating, he knew that her lack of size didn’t mean she should be underestimated. Here eyes were different--brown and green. _Hazel,_ he’d learn later.

  
That’s when he sees that her mouth is moving. Kriff, she was speaking. Saint manages to get his head in the game in time to catch the end of the sentence.

“--but why do you keep calling me general?”

“Our trainers said the Jedi would lead us as our generals,” Flash responds, throwing a grenade towards a group of incoming clankers.

The Jedi tilts her head and gives an expression Saint could probably interpret better if his own wasn’t so fuzzy, “Good to know,” she said after a beat.

(“I had no idea what was going on _at all_ ,” she would tell him, months later. “We thought it was just going to be a simple rescue mission. They didn’t even tell me about the clone soldiers.” Gal took another drink of whiskey. “Then the next thing I know the shooting starts and you all just kind of show up with Master Yoda, and you’re all calling me General as the bodies keep dropping. It’s honestly a miracle I didn’t get shot.”

Saint had known her long enough at this point that the revelation wasn’t a disappointment. If anything, it just made him like her more.)

They would figure out later that as Jedi Corps, her actual rank was much lower. Somewhere around a Major. But everyone knew the Jedi outranked everyone else, and the medics even outranked the Jedi when it came to the health of the troopers.

But right then and there, all Saint can think is _That One._ Please, please let her be his Jedi.

* * *

One good boi, curtesy of forcesensitivebantha on tumblr. Check him out he does great artwork!

**Author's Note:**

> Ah, meet-cutes. But what is Star Wars romance if not meeting your love interest in the middle of an absolute disaster of a situation. Most likely involving blasterfire
> 
> Also, did I give Saint the number 4077 specifically as a MASH reference? A reference to the fact that Galahad is basically a space doctor? Yes. Yes I did.
> 
> As always if you like what you've seen here, have any thoughts or questions, comment below and let me know! Or leave kudos!


End file.
